The use of a boat as a tow vehicle for various water sport activities includes the consideration of a wide range of desired wake characteristics for those sports. At one extreme, a minimal wake is desired for optimal barefoot and slalom skiing, where the wake is generally considered a nuisance. At the other extreme, as large a wake as possible is desired for wakeboarding and wakeskating, where the wake is considered a launch ramp for aerial tricks, and for wakesurfing where the wake face provides the means of conveyance for the rider. Generally, lighter boats with minimal “V” (deadrise) hulls have been used when minimal wakes are desired, while heavier boats with deeper “V” hulls are used to create larger wakes. The use of water ballast in bladders or built-in tanks inside the boat is a common practice to increase the size of the wake of any given boat, thus giving it greater utility as a tow vehicle, but consumes significant interior or storage space, and adds large stresses within the boat structure due to the weight of the water. The present invention is intended to maximize a boat's utility as a tow vehicle by enabling a boat with small wake-creation characteristics to be easily and quickly reconfigured to create larger wakes with little to no loss of interior volume or storage space, and with minimal added weight. A key feature of the invention is the presence of a support bar between the drive unit of an outboard or sterndrive motor which applies propulsive force directly to wake-augmentation plates and in so doing, minimizes stresses that would otherwise be transmitted through the outboard or sterndrive motor mountings and the boat hull to push the wake-augmentation plates through the water.
Devices for the management of a motorboat's attitude when traveling through the water and/or for the creation of a specific or larger wake for certain water sport activities, such as wakeboarding, have been disclosed on certain other previous U.S. Patents. U.S. Pat. No. 6,923,136, addresses the automatic trimming of a boat's trim tabs via interaction with the boat's sterndrive unit or outboard motor, but it and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,138,601 and 6,167,830 and others which further describe various forms of trim tab devices, are for the stated purpose of changing a boats attitude in the water, primarily during acceleration, by causing lift to occur to the back of the boat, which may or may not have any significant affect on the size of the wake. U.S. Pat. No. 7,434,531 specifically addresses adjusting a boat's wake for water sports, but the hydraulic units used to force down the wake-adjustment plates into the water flow are mounted directly to the boats hull, creating high strains in the hull to manage wakeplate and propulsive loads, which limits the size of the plates.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,012,408 and 7,140,318 and 5,315,951 and others all describe various devices that mount directly to the boat hull to adjust the attitude or displacement of the rear of the boat to adjust the wake, but have no connection to the components driving the boat so as to minimize the forces being transmitted through the boat hull or transom as the boat is propelled through the water. U.S. Pat. No. 7,063,031 describes a wake control device, and includes a provision for mounting a hydrofoil to an outboard motor aft of the drive unit, with all hydraulic forces from the hydrofoil transmitted through the outboard motor and its mountings to the hull.